Joe Luc Barnes
There has been a little time to digest the summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the first of its kind, bringing together all five Central Asian heads of state and the two presidents of the European Union on April 4. The participants may still be literally digesting the rack of lamb and Fergana plov served at the closing dinner. This took so long to get through that the media was kept waiting for nearly an hour before the Europeans’ final press conference – a reflection, perhaps, of Uzbek hospitality, described as “outstanding” by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The gushing praise capped a successful week for her host, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Just days before the summit, he was widely credited for being the driving force behind an historic trilateral agreement between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The accord, signed in the Tajik city of Khujand on March 31, saw the mutual recognition of their respective borders, a diplomatic breakthrough three-decades in the making, and one that symbolized the region’s growing appetite for resolving its own problems, on its own terms.
Set against this backdrop of budding regional coordination, the Brussels delegation arrived seeking new partnerships. With Europe’s own regional order being rocked by Moscow and Washington, and Central Asian states exploring ways to reduce their reliance on Russia and China, the timing could hardly have been more apt.
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